VIDEO: Dubai Airport to screen travelers with ‘face-scanning’ fish

DUBAI: Authorities in Dubai will soon be putting in place a hi-tech security system at the airport that binds travelers to pass through a virtual aquarium that will scan their faces.

The tunnel will have 80 cameras hidden behind high-quality images of an aquarium and will replace the traditional security clearance check at a counter.

“The fish is a sort of entertainment and something new for the traveller but, at the end of the day, it attracts the vision of the travellers to different corners in the tunnel for the cameras to capture his/her face print,” Major Gen Obaid Al Hameeri, deputy director general of Dubai residency and foreign affairs, said.

“The virtual images are of very high quality and gives a simulation of a real-life aquarium.”

The display can be altered to offer other natural settings, such as the desert.

After walking through the tunnel, the traveller will receive either a green message that reads “have a nice trip” or, if an alert is raised, a red sign will alert the operations room.

Major Gen Al Hameeri said; “And throughout the tunnel, the passenger does not feel anything, they pass through normally.”

It is reported that the ‘virtual border’ will first be installed at Terminal 3 in Dubai Airport, but will be rolled out in all the other terminals before 2020.

The novel idea came about during discussions on how to best accommodate the continually increasing number of passengers travelling through Dubai Airport.

More than 124 million passengers are expected to pass through all Dubai airports by 2020.